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New technologies to help older Australians

ELEANOR HALL: Now to our story on the technology that could help older Australians to live independently for longer.

The CSIRO is starting trials of high tech sensors in 20 homes in the New South Wales town of Armidale.

The sensors will monitor heat, sound, and movement and trigger alarms for relatives if there is any sign of a problem, as Lindy Kerin explains.

LINDY KERIN: The sensors are small and discreet and they'll be placed in 20 homes as part of the trial.

Colin Griffith is the director of the Australian Centre for Broadband Innovation at the CSIRO.

COLIN GRIFFITH: We're putting tiny little sensors, no bigger than a packet of cards, that can be discreetly put inside a home. So they're not even visible, that can monitor someone's movements, temperature, humidity, sound and develop a picture of someone's daily activities.

LINDY KERIN: Colin Griffith says the sensors will set off an alarm if there are any changes in those patterns and alert relatives through a website or text message.

COLIN GRIFFITH: If there's something unusual, if someone isn't moving around. If there's a suspected fall. Also it could just send an indicator that the activity levels are normal.

LINDY KERIN: How would it pick up a fall?

COLIN GRIFFITH: A combination of things - if there's no movement in the house, infrared sensors could detect that someone is lying down.

LINDY KERIN: Ian Yates is the chief executive of COTA Australia, the peak body representing older Australians. He's welcomed the trial and hopes it will help seniors stay longer in their own homes.

IAN YATES: One of the significant issues that leads to what we would regard as premature admission into residential care is fear of something happening, fear of not being able to alert people, or in the case of family members, the worries of which older people often feel very, very acutely - that they won't know if something happens.

So I think this kind of technology can play a useful role in that regard.

LINDY KERIN: So could you see these sort of devices in older people's home more broadly?

IAN YATES: I think we will see a wide range of different devices that will enable people to communicate to and from, for people to communicate with older people and for older people if need be to communicate with family, neighbours, emergency services or indeed in the area of electronic health, to communicate regularly with doctors without necessarily having to make a visit.

LINDY KERIN: Eighty-five-year-old Janet Hebblewhite is one of those taking part in the trial. She lives independently at a 40 unit retirement village.

JANET HEBBLEWHITE: My eyesight is beginning to go downhill, the osteoporosis is catching up, and my hips and back are not as good as they were. So therefore my walking, I could trip over nothing and I'm very careful but, it's always possible to have a fall, which would be disastrous. So if we are covered with especially a fall, it's something that would be, you know, very necessary.

LINDY KERIN: You've said that you're happy to take part in the trial. Do you think more generally older Australians would like this sort of technology in their homes?

JANET HEBBLEWHITE: That's what the aim is, the aim is sort of down the track, 20, 30, 40 years down, to be able to have this in people's homes, when there won't be sufficient aged care facilities for everyone to be in. So that anyone in a home could have these put in to show that they were in strife in some way.

LINDY KERIN: The CSIRO says its system has been developed in consultation with the participants of the trial and that privacy concerns have been considered. The devices will be installed over the next two months.

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